On the eve of his departure, 21 October 1834, Lönnrot wrote to his friends about his upcoming trip: (to Vicar C.J. Frosternus) "Tomorrow I am again off to Kuhmo, covering dangerous waters that have just claimed three men." (to C.N. Keckman, the secretary of the Finnish Literature Society) "I now have most of what has remained of the old, mythological poems. Tomorrow I am going to Sotkamo and Kuhmo, and I am taking along all of the relevant poems I have written down. Best regards."
There are no entries in Lönnrot's diary for the very beginning of the trip. They start on 3 November when he came to the vicarage in Kuhmo, which he calls "Pajakka", after the name of the nearby rapids.
During the days described above, Lönnrot was working on the manuscript of the Kalevala and finished the original one. All that he had left to do was to polish the text and write the foreword. This he finished in February of the following year.
